Los plebes, the documentary presented in TFF’s “The rooms of Rol” section, dives into the intimacy of young millennial sicarios who roam Sinaloa, Mexico, at the service of drug traffickers, showing their passions and hopes for the future. And, by dwelling on these budding assassins’ use of social media to recount their double lives, the story tries to question the media and offers a profound reflection on death.
«Filming you with the camera is just an excuse to watch you», says Gainsbourg Birkin, with a sweet and quiet tone, during one of the first scenes of Jane Par Charlotte. The movie premiered at the 74th edition of Cannes Film Festival and was proposed again at the TFF39 in the “Surprise” section. It immediately crosses the cold boundaries of the biographic documentary, taking the form of an intimate and very lively conversation between mother and daughter. There lies the hiatus between these two identities which, like the hiatus between biography and autobiography, becomes more and more ephemeral, until it involves also Joe, Charlotte’s youngest daughter.
“Rol’s room”, a parallel section of TFF39 dedicated to genre cinema, opens with Coming home in the dark, which warns the viewer right from the start. The Hoaganraad family, on a trip to an isolated stretch of New Zealand coastline, comes across two mysterious vagrants and the doubt immediately arises: has this encounter been meticulously planned or is it nothing more than a cruel twist of fate?
Naples-based street art duo Cyop&Kaf are back in theatres with a new documentary, following their 2013 critically acclaimed The Secret (2013), which was presented during Torino Film Festival’s 31st edition. Their new film, Yeast, is the result of a twenty-year-old reflection. Using their camera to follow a summer camp, a theatre laboratory inside of a museum and a judo dojo, the two directors wonder about educational practices, starting from the level of the student-teacher relationship.
Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre present their first long feature film out of competition, a story that moves along a double track: the almost documentary-like representation of low-cost airline flight attendants and the main character’s introspective analysis, as she is unable to work through her grief.
Italia, il fuoco e la cenere is a poetic and oneiric journey through the divas, ghosts, lights, and shadows of Italian silent cinema. It explores its most material essence, it brings its lantern closer to the flesh, the bodies, the bare shoulders in the half-light, the penetrating gazes, the feverish convulsions of the divas. The erotic component is central: cinema made the prudes tremble, in the darkened rooms it allowed women and men to blend. The cinematic exploration becomes a historical exploration and paints the reality of a country in constant transformation, from the pompous and resplendent scenes to the decadence and abyss of fascism that are inexorably approaching.
La gita in barca di un padre insieme alle sue due figlie si trasformerà presto in un incubo. È questa la semplice premessa su cui si costruisce Inmersión, lungometraggio d’esordio del regista cileno Nicolás Postiglione che indaga ciò che c’è sotto la superficie dei suoi personaggi. «È un peccato non venga più nessuno qui» commenta il padre osservando con nostalgia i luoghi in cui è cresciuto, ora apparentemente disabitati. Eppure, l’equilibrio precario dei tre protagonisti è definitivamente sconvolto proprio dall’incontro con alcuni naufraghi che, accolti a bordo dell’imbarcazione, iniziano a destare nel padre il timore che le loro vite siano in serio pericolo.
Il Torino Film Festival nell’ultimo biennio ha dato nuova linfa alla categoria dei cortometraggi, rientrati in competizione ufficiale dalla scorsa edizione e quest’anno protagonisti di una interessante novità. Ognuno dei dodici film selezionati da Daniele De Cicco, infatti, ha accompagnato uno dei lungometraggi in concorso durante le rispettive proiezioni nei giorni del festival. Un segnale di attenzione e rispetto verso una pratica sempre più viva in Italia e che ritrova la sua centralità nella rassegna torinese.
“You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” Samuel Beckett
In Potenza, during the night of the winter solstice – the longest night of the year – a woman is dissatisfied with her job, three boys are trying to escape adulthood, a corrupt politician is attempting to achieve some sort of salvation, and the heart of a young boy gets broken. These are the stories that Simone Aleandri’s film, out of competition at the Turin Film Festival, weaves together; stories of characters in crisis, unstable, different stories that converge, however, in the same place: a gas station, the place where the film begins.
Presentato in concorso al TFF39, il primo lungometraggio del regista turco Selman Nacar è un dramma etico e psicologico, che si concentra sul processo di cambiamento fissandone ogni suo più piccolo passaggio.
A Super 8mm amateur film, made in 1975, abandoned in the director’s basement for years, seriously damaged by the humidity coming from the lake near her house: this is the starting point of Undead Voices, the documentary by Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo which aims to revive the feminist film Donne emergete! by Isabella Bruno. The story of Donne emergete! is shared by many films about militant feminism: «There was not enough interest in preserving them and they were considered unworthy» commented the curator and art historian Annamaria Licciardello, emphasising how this issue adds to that of the already limited number of feminists who have tried their hand at directing, in this historical period.
Multidisciplinary artist Amalia Ulman debuted in competition at TTF 39 with her first feature film “El planeta”, already presented at the 2021 Sundance Festival. The micro-budget and a small crew of five make this debut an experiment that evokes the independent American cinema of the 1990s.
An Abbreviated Manual to Free Cinema from Reality – Avi Mograbi’s Documentarist Forays, the title of Israeli director’s masterclass, is fairly self-explanatory. It closely mirrors the title of his film, The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation, which has been presented in the TFFDoc / non-competing section, and it mirrors its approach as well.
In both cases the director starts from specific images – the full-length features Z32 (2008) and The First 54 Years in the case of the masterclass and the archive of interviews belonging to the Breaking the Silence association in the case of the film – to be able to push for deeper thoughts in the respective fields, in this case military strategy and documentary films.
Thanks to this empiric process The First 54 Years allows the director to create a manual on military occupation techniques through the observation of multiple testimonies.
In very much the same way the director has used his two films as indisputable examples during the masterclass to show off the various possibilities of reality cinema. Although the two documentaries are based on the same source material, they go in different directions leading to two very different results. Z32 is entirely based on a war veteran’s ponderings about the actions he has committed throughout his military service. The First 54 Years, on the other hand, refuses any possibility of elaborating trauma, focusing instead on witnesses’ tales which expose facts and mechanisms regarding the Israeli occupation. As previously mentioned, the source material for both documentaries is made up of soldiers’ testimonies which have been collected by Breaking the Silence, an association founded by Mograbi himself with the aim of telling the story and the brutality of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and to keep alive those memories which governments from 1967 onwards have attempted to erase.
Z32 was created with the idea of making a fairly straightforward film telling the story of a soldier who regrets having taken part in a retaliatory action against Palestinian policemen. The possibility of making a movie centered around the emotions and thoughts of the soldier is hampered by the fact that the man does not want his face to be shown. This was solved thanks to the director’s intuition to cover the soldier’s face with a 3D digital mask which still left his eyes and mouth visible, thus enabling him to show his emotions. This solution notwithstanding, the veteran still found it hard to express himself freely. Mograbi then decided to give the soldier a camera, to allow him to autonomously reflect upon his actions. At this time the man’s girlfriend becomes a relevant figure, given that she takes part in the soldier’s ponderings and opposing his attempts to absolve himself. At the same time, the director is questioning the moral dilemmas surrounding his film: is it fair to hide a murderer inside one’s work? It is fair to exploit his story? These thoughts are told by the director via songs, almost as if the musical were a mask used to filter his reflections, similarly to what happens to the protagonist.
The First 54 Years moves in a different direction. In this case Mograbi uses a number of testimonies from Breaking the Silence’s archives, in order to make a film made up of a series of interviews. Mograbi focuses here on tales of actions, procedures, orders and mechanisms of Israeli military operations in Palestina, leading the viewer like a military tactics expert. The director, like a modern Machiavelli, recites passages of an imaginary military occupation manual which uses the Israeli case – from the 1967 West Bank occupation to the first and second Intifadas – as an examples to prove its points. These are harsh words which contrast strongly with Mograbi as a person, in a powerful attack towards the Israeli state confirming, once again, the director’s ability to question reality, internalize it and decline it in different ways – ironically, cinically, experimentally – which are always functional to a critical analysis of the world.
«Riprenderti con la videocamera è solo una scusa per guardarti», dice Gainsbourg a Birkin, con quel suo tono dolce e pacato, in una delle prime scene di Jane Par Charlotte, film presentato in anteprima alla 74ª edizione del Festival di Cannes – e riproposto al TFF39 nella sezione Surprise. Il film oltrepassa subito i freddi confini del documentario biografico assumendo la forma di una conversazione intima e sensibilmente viva tra madre e figlia, dove lo iato tra queste due identità (così come quello tra biografia e autobiografia) si fa sempre più labile, fino a coinvolgere anche Joe, la figlia più piccola di Charlotte.
«I have the impression that the more massive our communication is, and the more we consume points of view and opinions, the more superficial that communication gets». This is how Ronny Trocker comments on the subject of his film which, by observing the reactions of the different members of what seems to be the perfect German family – educated, wealthy and bilingual – following a little break-in at their beach house, examines human relationships and the dynamics, often disfunctional, underlying them.
Italia, il fuoco e la cenere si presenta come un viaggio poetico e onirico attraverso le dive, i fantasmi, le luci e le ombre del cinema muto italiano. Ne esplora l’essenza più materica, avvicina la propria lanterna alla carne, ai corpi, alle spalle scoperte nella penombra, agli sguardi penetranti, alle convulsioni febbrili delle dive. La componente erotica è centrale: il cinema faceva tremare i benpensanti, nelle sale buie permetteva a donne e uomini di mescolarsi. L’esplorazione cinematografica diventa esplorazione storica e dipinge la realtà di un paese in continuo mutamento, dalle scene pompose e splendenti alla decadenza e all’abisso del fascismo che si avvicinano inesorabili.
Il duo di street artist napoletani Cyop&kaf torna al cinema con un nuovo documentario, dopo il premiato Il segreto (2013), presentato alla 31esima edizione del Torino Film Festival. Il nuovo film, Lievito, è il risultato di una riflessione ventennale. Seguendo con la telecamera le giornate di una colonia estiva, un laboratorio teatrale all’interno di uno spazio museale e un dojo di judo, i registi si interrogano sulle pratiche educative, partendo dal grado zero della relazione allievo-maestro.
Un film amatoriale in Super 8mm del 1975, abbandonato nella cantina della regista per anni, deteriorato gravemente dall’umidità del lago vicino al quale vive: questo è il punto di partenza di Undead Voices, il documentario di Maria Iorio e di Raphaël Cuomo che si propone di riportare in vita il film femminista Donne emergete! di Isabella Bruno. La storia di Donne emergete! è quella di molti film del cinema femminista militante: «Non c’è stato sufficiente interesse verso la loro conservazione, sono state considerate opere non degne» commenta la curatrice e storica Annamaria Licciardello, sottolineando come questa problematica si aggiunga al già esiguo numero di femministe che si sono cimentate nella regia in questo periodo storico. «Si trattava di ragazze giovani che non avevano i mezzi per fare cinema, a loro volta mantenute a distanza, come ancora avviene, da tutto ciò che è tecnico-scientifico o tecnologico, e quindi di dominio maschile». È stato prodotto così poco e di quel poco si conserva una minima parte: «C’è un vero e proprio buco nella storia» aggiunge Licciardello.
«Ho l’impressione che più massiva è la nostra comunicazione e più prospettive e opinioni consumiamo, più superficiale questa comunicazione diventa». Così Ronny Trocker commenta il soggetto del suo film che, osservando le reazioni dei diversi membri di quella che sembra una perfetta famiglia tedesca – istruita, benestante e bilingue – a seguito di una piccola effrazione nella loro casa al mare, indaga i rapporti umani e le dinamiche, spesso disfunzionali, che li sottendono.
Presented out of competition at TFF39, “Quattordici giorni” is the fourth feature film directed by Ivan Cotroneo, an acknowledged Italian television author and screenwriter, who decided to turn into a movie one of his novels from 2020, co-written with Monica Rametta, who was also involved in the screenwriting of the movie.
